If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Re: The Murdoch Mess

Apparently the mistress of former NYC police chief Bernard Kerik has a link to Murdoch. Footnotes at the link.

Lawsuit
In November 2007, Regan filed a $100 million lawsuit against News Corporation protesting her dismissal.[10] Her allegations include that she was ordered to lie to federal investigators regarding the controversy over Bernard Kerik, with whom she was having an affair, to protect Rudy Giuliani's bid for president,[11] as his promotions of Bernard Kerik were likely to become a burden on the presumed future campaign. According to The New York Times, "The assertion that the News Corporation has sought to protect Mr. Giuliani appears in the opening page of the filing. The document later revisits aspects of the assertion."[12]

In January 2008, the defamation lawsuit was settled on terms described as confidential and equitable. It was reported the News Corporation paid Regan a sum between 10 and 30 million dollars. In a joint statement, News Corp conceded that Regan had not uttered anti-Semitic statements and that Regan was not anti-Semitic.[13]

In February 2011, another lawsuit revealed that Roger Ailes, head of Fox News, was the News Corporation person who told her to lie to federal prosecutors.[14]

Re: The Murdoch Mess

Rupert Murdoch is assembling a team of US lawyers with expertise in fighting large federal criminal cases, suggesting he is readying himself for a bitter legal battle in America as a result of the phone-hacking scandal.

At the centre of the team is Brendan Sullivan, one of America's most experienced lawyers, who over 40 years in litigation has acquired a reputation for taking on difficult and sensitive cases. He represented Oliver North, the US marine corps officer, in congressional hearings over the Iran-Contra affair.

At the time of the hearings in 1987, Sullivan was described by the Washington Post as "the legal equivalent of nuclear war". A fellow lawyer said: "He asks no quarter and gives no quarter."

Sullivan describes himself as a specialist in "high-profile criminal litigation", whose typical clients include major companies involved in "criminal investigations, litigation or government regulatory matters". He is the author of Techniques for Dealing with Pending Criminal Charges or Criminal Investigations.

Sullivan was probably brought on board by Murdoch last week on the recommendation of Joel Klein, the former US assistant attorney general who the News Corporation chief has entrusted with leading its internal investigation into the phone-hacking scandal.

Klein's wife, Nicole Seligman, who is now the top lawyer at Sony, used to work for Sullivan's firm, Williams & Connolly, in Washington.

The appointment of Sullivan – revealed last week by the New York Times's Dealbook blog – is being seen as an indication that Murdoch is preparing for the worst. In the UK, News International has already set aside about £20m in preparation for compensation payments to victims of its phone-hacking activities, and pressure is now building in the US for criminal and civil legal action.

The FBI has already launched an investigation into allegations that News of the World journalists tried to obtain phone records of 9/11 victims, and several prominent members of Congress have called for an inquiry into News Corp under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act that penalises US-based firms for bribery abroad.

News Corp, which is headquartered in the US, is considered vulnerable as employees at News of the World are accused of having bribed UK police officers.

The US securities and exchange commission could also bring civil charges if News Corp is found to have inaccurately prepared its accounts in an attempt to disguise bribery payments.

Eric Holder, the US attorney general, confirmed on Friday that federal investigations were under way into the 9/11 allegations. "There have been members of Congress in the United States who have asked us to investigate those same allegations. And we are progressing in that regard using the appropriate federal agencies in the United States."

Sidney Blumenthal, who reported on the North case for the Post and worked with the Kleins in the Clinton administration, said the message from Sullivan's appointment was clear. "He is a criminal attorney who works for high-profile public figures facing large federal prosecutions. That's why you hire Brendan Sullivan. It's not because you have a tax problem or a traffic ticket – you hire him because you think you are going to trial."

In one of the first specific allegations that the News of the World may have violated US privacy laws, it was claimed over the weekend that the film actor Jude Law had his phone hacked into by reporters for the newspaper while he was arriving at New York's JFK airport. Were the allegations found to be true, that would involve a breach of US phone networks which could carry serious consequences.

Among his recent cases, Sullivan represented Ted Stevens, the late former senator for Alaska, who was found guilty of federal corruption charges. Sullivan had the conviction dismissed on the grounds that the prosecution had withheld evidence.

He also represented Henry Cisneros in 1995 when he was investigated for having lied to the FBI in a background check before his appointment as Bill Clinton's housing secretary, as well as Richard Grasso, the then chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, in a 2004 lawsuit about his allegedly excessive pay package of $140m (£75m at the time) which was eventually dropped.

Sullivan was brought up outside Providence in Rhode Island. He is a keen sailor and owns a yacht called, appropriately, the Mistrial.

Re: The Murdoch Mess

The LulzSec collective hacked the Sun's website and redirected it to another hacked page falsely reporting that Rupert Murdoch had been found dead.

LulzSec also claimed to be "sitting on their [the Sun's] emails" and that they would release the emails on Tuesday. They tweeted what they claimed was Rebekah Brooks's email address at the Sun, and said they knew her password combination.

LulzSec put up the fake page after they found a way into the News International system and changed the code for the breaking news banner on the Sun's site. When the Sun page refreshed, readers were redirected to a fake page on the New Times site at new-times.co.uk/sun.

The hoax story suggested Murdoch had taken the radioactive poison palladium before "stumbling into his famous topiary garden late last night".

The page later redirected to LulzSec's Twitter account.

"This is only the beginning. **** you Murdoch. You are next," tweeted the person behind the LulzSec Twitter account – thought to be the member known as Topiary, a Swedish-born citizen who lives in the Netherlands.

The episode demonstrated that News International's systems have been vulnerable to hackers for some time. Rumours had surfaced that the hacking collective Anonymous would hit the site last week, but nothing appeared to come of it.

LulzSec, a group of about six hackers, had announced last month it was disbanding, but it has seemingly reformed to attack News International.

"We have owned Sun/News of the World – that [Murdoch] story is simply phase 1 – expect the lulz [laughs] to flow in coming days," Topiary tweeted from the LulzSec account.

Another member of LulzSec, Sabu, had earlier in the day begun tweeting email addresses, passwords and names of former News International staff, including Bill Akass, the News of the World's managing editor, and Joe Campbell of the Sun. It is not known whether the claimed passwords were correct.

Re: The Murdoch Mess

Dumped Bag Found Near Brooks' Home
A bag containing a computer and documents was found in the trash near former News International executive Rebekah Brooks’s home, and her husband tried to reclaim it before it was handed to the cops.
Jul 18, 2011 7:45 PM EDT

Police are examining a bag containing a computer, a phone and paperwork that was found in the garbage near the home of Rebekah Brooks, the former chief executive of Rupert Murdoch's News International who was arrested Sunday and questioned over the phone hacking scandal that's rocked Murdoch's media empire. According to the Guardian newspaper, the bag was found in an underground parking lot just yards from the apartment block where Brooks lives. It was handed to security Monday afternoon, and Brooks's husband, Charlie, tried to reclaim it. He couldn't prove the bag was his and the police was called. He also denied that it belonged to his wife. CCTV footage is being looked at to ascertain who dropped the bag in the trash.